Henstead is a village near

Kessingland Kessingland is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of the English county of Suffolk. It is located around south of Lowestoft on the east coast of the United Kingdom. It is of interest to archaeologists as Palaeolithic and Ne ...

and the A12 in the civil parish of

Henstead with Hulver Street Henstead with Hulver Street is a civil parish in the East Suffolk district of the English county of Suffolk. It is around south-west of Lowestoft, south-east of Beccles and north of the coastal town of Southwold.Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include ...

, England. It has a church called Church of St Mary which is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. It has very few housing areas, and is a rural area. It is situated near Rushmere. The parish has a population of 408, and is in the district of East Suffolk, which contains many very similar sized civil parishes. The

Private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

preparatory school, The Old School Henstead, is also located in the village. The Old School, Henstead - geograph

. The church has a Norman doorway, and an embattled tower. The village stands three miles from the coast, and five miles south-east of

Beccles Beccles ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . The town is shown on the milestone as from London via the A145 and A12 roads, north-east of London as the crow fl ...

railway station.

History

The name "Henstead" means 'Hen place'. In 1771 the landscape artist, Thomas Hearne spent six weeks with the young George Beaumont in Henstead at the home of the latter's tutor at Eton, Charles Davy (a priest). For Beaumont it proved the inspiration for his future profession as a landscape painter himself. Through time, Henstead has had a history of having job opportunities mainly in agriculture, retail and handicraft.

''In 1831, out of a total of 144 people, 107 worked in agriculture, 20 worked in retail and handicraft, and 17 worked in other domains.''

The structure of jobs in Henstead has not changed, it is still a rural area, with most jobs available in the agricultural domain. For example in 1881, around 130 jobs were in the agricultural domain, the highest of all sectors.
This is a description from the 1870s:

''The parish contains also the hamlet of Hulver, which has a post office under Beccles. Acres, 1, 918. Real property, £2, 090. Pop., 534. Houses, 120.''

Henstead has had a history of a poor social structure: In 1831, 134 people lived in Henstead and 106 of those were labourers or servants. There were very few occupations that offered high wages, most were in primary industry. A map of Henstead from the 20th century is shown to the left.

References

{{authority control Villages in Suffolk